Archive for the ‘Monarch Population Status’ Category

Each December Eduardo Rendón from the World Wildlife Fund Mexico and a team of biologists search for and measure each monarch overwintering colony - those within the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve (MBBR) and those outside this area as well. ...

Remember “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”? It’s a great story for kids and I’ve started to use the essence of the story to explain the ups and downs of monarch numbers. This metaphorical usage all started when I was talking ...

As many of you know, the fall monarch migration is well underway. In July when I wrote the text for the Premigration Newsletter (available for download at monarchwatch.org/tagging) it was already clear that the fall migration would be modest and ...

The number of migrating monarchs this fall should be similar to those observed in each of the last three years and the total area occupied by monarchs at the overwintering sites in Mexico should once again be close to five ...

We have just returned from our annual trip to Mexico to purchase tags recovered at the overwintering sites. This is just a brief overview of the trip - a more detailed report will be posted soon.
We purchased about 1,000 tags ...

It is the season at Monarch Watch when the mailbox is full of tagging datasheets. Many of the datasheets are arriving with returned tags along with short notes lamenting the lack of monarchs this past fall and requests for an ...

"Where are the monarchs?" has been a common question asked of us over the last month or so and the following is the best answer I can provide at this time.
Thanks to all of you who have contacted us with ...

It’s official - the monarch population numbers are low again. Measured at 4.61 hectares, this year’s overwintering population is the third lowest since detailed measures of all overwintering colonies began in 1993. The three lowest populations in this 15-year record ...

The monarch population in the eastern part of the breeding range was higher than normal for the second year in a row. Although the 2007 fall migration was smaller than normal in the upper mid-west, perhaps due to a mid ...

Although there have been killing frosts over much of the northern portion of the breeding range, late monarchs have been reported with some regularity over the past two weeks and, as recently as yesterday (1 November), two monarchs were spotted ...